20th Century Animation
Twentieth Century Animation (formerly Fox Family Films and Twentieth Century Fox Animation and stylized as 20th Century Animation) is an animation subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is located in Century City, Los Angeles, and is tasked with producing feature-length animated, stop motion, mixed media and digitally-produced films. The first film produced by 20th Century Animation, Anastasia, was released on November 21, 1997. Its latest release was Spies in Disguise on December 25, 2019, with their next scheduled release set to be Magic Girl: The Final Chance on May 8, 2020. Background The original 20th Century Fox Cartoon Studios (it was formerly Kenny & Kella Young Productions until 1960) was closed down by 20th Century Fox in 1972. Before 20th Century Fox restarted its animation division, 20th Century Fox released its first ten animated films, such as Objects, Hugo the Hippo ''(1975), ''Wizards, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977), The Return of the Objects (1981), Fire and Ice (1983), Density (1987), Life After Dinosaurs ''(1989), ''Supernatural Woman (1991), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), Once Upon a Forest (1993), Pets World and The Pagemaster (1994). Fox responded to the successes of most of these films by reestablishing its own cartoon studio. In May 1993, Fox agreed to a two-year first-look deal with Nickelodeon for family films. The deal would mostly include original material, though a Nickelodeon executive did not rule out the possibility of making films based on The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rugrats and Doug. However, no films came out of the deal due to the 1994 acquisition of Paramount Pictures by Nickelodeon's parent company, Viacom, and they would distribute the film projects instead. History The division initially started in February 1994 as Fox Family Films, as one of four film divisions of 20th Century Fox under executive John Matoian. The division was planned to produce six feature films a year as part of a plan to produce more films per year overall. Fox senior vice president of production Chris Meledandri was transferred into the unit as executive vice president in March 1994 after having being hired the previous year. The week of May 6, 1994, Fox Family announced the hiring of Don Bluth and Gary Goldman for a new $100 million animation studio which began construction that year in Phoenix, Arizona. In three years, the animation studio would produce and release its first film, Anastasia. In September 1994, Matoian was promoted by Rupert Murdoch to head up the Fox network. Meledandri was selected to head up the unit in 1994. It produced live-action films such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), Dunston Checks In (1996) and Home Alone 3. By August 1997, Fox Family had decreased the number of live films. Fox Animation In 1998, following the success of Anastasia, the division was renamed to Fox Animation Studios, refocusing on animated feature films, including stop-motion, mixed media and digital production. The division's live action films in development at the time included Marvel Comics' Silver Surfer, the disaster film spoof Disaster Area, and Fantastic Voyage. Ever After ''(1998), a Cinderella adaptation, was the division's last live action film. At this time, there were several animated films on the company's development slate: a ''RandomToons movie, Dark Town with Henry Selick, Chris Columbus and Sam Hamm, Santa Calls at Blue Sky, and Matt Groening (The Simpsons) projects, Steve Oedekerk and Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The Phoenix studio at the time was producing Planet Ice expected in 1999 and directed by Art Vitello and Anastasia producer/directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman's then soon to be announced project. Chris Meledandri remained as the president of the division, which was known by 1999 as 20th Century Fox Animation. 20th Century Fox Animation vice president of physical production Chuck Richardson was sent in early December 1999 to Fox subsidiary Blue Sky Studios as general manager and senior vice president. Richardson was sent to prepare Blue Sky for feature animation production. The Phoenix studio, which kept the Fox Animation Studios name, laid off 2/3 of its employee workforce in February 2000 before its closure in late June of that year. Fox Animation looked to produce films at Blue Sky and its Los Angeles headquarters. In January 2007, Meledandri left for Universal with Vanessa Morrison as his replacement while answering to newly appointed 20th Century Fox Film Group vice chairman Hutch Parker. Morrison moved from the live action division where she handled family-children fare as senior vice president of production. Morrision was making deal with outside producers like she approved a Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox stop-motion adaptation. In September 2017, Locksmith Animation formed a multi-year production deal with 20th Century Fox, who will distribute Locksmith's films, with Locksmith aiming to release a film every 12-18 months. The deal was to bolster Blue Sky's output and replace the lost of distributing DreamWorks Animation films. On October 30, 2017, Morrison was named president of a new created 20th Century Fox division, Fox Family, which as a mandate similar to this company when it was called Fox Family Films. Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird were named co-president of Fox Animation the same day and would also have direct oversight of Blue Sky and over see the Locksmith Animation deal and grow Fox Animation with other partnerships and producer deals. Disney era On October 18, 2018, it was announced that 20th Century Fox Animation would be added alongside 20th Century Fox to the Walt Disney Studios following their acquisition, with co-presidents Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird retaining leadership while reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman, Alan Horn and Twentieth Century Fox vice chairman Emma Watts. On March 21, 2019, Disney announced that the 20th Century Fox Animation label (including Blue Sky Studios) would be integrated as new units within the Walt Disney Studios with Co-Presidents Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird continuing to lead the studio reporting directly to Alan Horn. In August 2019, Walt Disney Animation Studios head Andrew Millstein was named as co-president of Blue Sky for day-to-day operations alongside Baird, while Pixar Animation Studios president Jim Morris would also be taking a supervisory role over Millstein. With the Disney take over, the Locksmith deal left 20th Century Fox for Warner Bros. in October 2019 except for the first and only film under the deal, Ron's Gone Wrong. On January 17, 2020, it was announced that the "Fox" name would be dropped from several of the Fox assets acquired by Disney, with 20th Century Fox Animation being renamed "20th Century Animation". Process In a similar fashion to other animation studios such as the Warner Animation Group, Sony Pictures Animation and Paramount Animation Los Angeles, the studio outsources their animated films to different animation and visual effects studios, with the majority of their films being animated in-house by the main Fox Animation studio in Century City and Blue Sky Studios in Greenwich, Connecticut. Some films, such as Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Book of Life, were created outside of 20th Century Fox Animation, although they were released under the studio's label. Filmography : See also: List of 20th Century Animation productions Fox Family Films * Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) * Dunston Checks In (1996) * Home Alone 3 (1997) * Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997) * Ever After (1998), a Cinderella adaptation, was the division's last live action film Fox Animation Studios Main article: Fox Animation Studios From 1994–2000, Fox operated Fox Animation Studios, a traditional animation studio which was started to compete with Walt Disney Animation Studios, which was experiencing great success at the time with films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. The Fox studio, however, was not as successful. Their first feature Anastasia made nearly $140 million at the worldwide box office on a $53 million budget in 1997, but their next feature, Titan A.E., was a large financial loss, losing $100 million for 20th Century Fox in 2000. The lack of box office success, coupled with the rise of computer animation, led Fox to shut down the Fox Animation Studios. * Anastasia (1997) * Bartok the Magnificent (1999) direct-to-video * Titan A.E. (2000) Fox Animation Coming soon! Blue Sky Studios Main article: Blue Sky Studios Since 1997, Fox owns Blue Sky Studios, a computer animation company known for the Ice Age franchise. Fox has had much more success with this studio, and the box office receipts of their films are competitive with those of Pixar and DreamWorks. On March 21, 2019, Blue Sky Studios was integrated as a separate unit within Walt Disney Studios, but they will still report to Fox Animation presidents Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird. They have released twelve feature films, numerous short films and television specials. Major feature films include: RandomToons Studios Main article: RandomToons Studios Since 1996, RandomToons Studios opened its doors to produce RandomToons-related products. JeremyWorks Entertainment Since 1975, Fox distributed and co-financed animated films produced by JeremyWorks Studios, Valentina Animation, ClearWorld Entertainment, and Red Ball Animation via their parent company JeremyWorks Entertainment. Co-productions Other * FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue (1998) * MonkeyboneS (2001) (co-production by 1492 Pictures) * Kung Pow: Enter the FistS (2002) (co-production by O Entertainment) * Isle of Dogs (2018) (co-production by Studio Babelsberg, Indian Paintbrush, and American Empirical Pictures; distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures) S Combines live-action with animation See also * Fox Television Animation * Walt Disney Animation Studios * Pixar * Fox Interactive * RandomToons Category:Company Category:JeremyAngryBirds3 Pictures Wikia